Alfaisal University’s AI Seminar Series explores ways artificial intelligence (AI) can benefit society, our environment, and the economy. In weekly talks, leaders from academia, industry, and NGOs, who are at the forefront of using AI for social good, showcase AI applications that are forging positive changes in healthcare, the environment, education, technology, government and more. Like the AI Center itself, the seminar series has a broad scope, covering both new methodological contributions, ground-breaking applications, and impact on society.
On Wednesday, Oct 5th in 2022, the College of Engineering in collaboration with the Saudi Public Health Academy organized a seminar titled, “Machine Learning in Bioinformatics and Genomics” as part of the AI Seminar Series which was presented by Dr. Mariam Aleissa. Dr. Mariam is Director of the Molecular Genetics Department at the Public Health Authority and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Alfaisal University’s College of Medicine. She is also a Principal Investigator (PI) in Alfaisal’s AI Center and Ibn Khaldun Fellow at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research in Cambridge, MA. Her areas of research include gene editing and bioinformatics.
In recent years, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) methods have begun to play an increasingly enabling role in the sciences and in industry. In particular, the advent of large and/or complex data corpora has given rise to new technological challenges and possibilities in genomics and bioinformatics.
In this seminar, Dr. Mariam described how AI, including machine learning, presents exciting opportunities to transform the field of genomics. She presented an overview of the ways in which AI and machine learning (ML) are being used in genomics to predict and identify hidden patterns in genomic data. She also highlighted the features in AI/ML-based computational tools that can handle, extract and interpret information hidden within the large trove of genomic data.
The seminar highlighted applications, opportunities, and transformative potential of AI in genomics and health care contexts. The event was attended by students and faculty in the College of Engineering, College of Medicine and the College of Life Sciences. The event concluded with thanking the speaker, participants, and the organizing committee for their participation, and an open discussion with the speaker. More on the AI Center’s activities and scientific programs can be viewed via ai.alfaisal.edu.
